400 



however, the Earwigs mentioned above ; they crawl in countless 

 numbers on the surface of the guano and everywhere on the 

 rocky walls. Evidently they live on the various larvae feeding 

 on the guano, but besides this, they are constantly waging a 

 terrible war against each other, the victors devouring the bodies 

 of their slain mates. Especially those which have just moulted, 

 their skins still being soft and of a yellowish white colour, are 

 hunted down by those in a more advanced state of maturity. 



"Copulating couples could be seen everywhere, their heads 

 turned opposite ways, and one of them pulling the other back- 

 wards. I have seen several times couples of which one had 

 freshly moulted attacked by other individuals, killed and torn 

 to pieces, while they were still united. 



"A more loathsome spectacle than these thousands of ugly, 

 hairy creatures, running about hither and thither, fighting and 

 devouring each other, can hardly be imagined. 



"The species cannot be called true cavernicolous, as the part 

 of the cave where the specimens were found was not quite dark, 

 being situated only about twenty metres from the high entrance 

 of the cave. 



" It is very curious that, although three other caves inhabited 

 by numerous bats are found quite near to the Gouwa Lawa, 

 these Earwigs were not observed in any of them. 



' ' The cave where I found the A rixenia is on the south side of 

 the Goenong Solok, a quite isolated range of hills lying in the 

 south-eastern part of the Residency of Banjoumas (Central Java), 

 on the left bank of the Kali (= river) Bengawan at the sea-shore, 

 which in that place consists of nearly black ' magnetic-iron 

 sands.' 



" I do not understand what the larvae found in the goular 

 pouch of the bats from Sarawak were doing there. If they live 

 on guano, it would not be necessary for them to visit the bats 

 themselves, as they could find all they desired in great quantity 

 on the floor of the caves. Could it be possible that the larvae are 

 attracted by the exudations from the glands in the goular pouch 

 of the bat ? Or do the larvœ simply use the bats as means of 

 conveyance to reach new localities ? You are perhaps aware 

 that it has been observed that some kinds of Acari are trans- 

 ported by fleas, without being parasites of the latter, and that, 



